Special forces set to control Odessa

Mourners grieve at the coffin of Vyacheslav Markin at his funeral in Odessa on Monday. Markin was a regional parliament deputy who died in a fire at the trade union building on Friday. Gleb Garanich / Reuters

Entire leadership of local police sacked for failure to control rebels

Ukraine's interior minister said on Monday he had drafted a new special forces unit in the southern port city of Odessa after the "outrageous" failure of police to tackle pro-Russian rebels in a weekend of violence that killed dozens.

Fighting continued near the eastern city of Sloviansk where Ukrainian troops have been pressing a campaign to end a pro-Russian rebellion.

Several people died in intense fighting on Monday on the fringes of Ukraine's rebel-held town of Sloviansk, Interior Minister Arsen Avakov told reporters in the combat zone.

"There have been deaths," Avakov said at a checkpoint held by troops 6 km from the gunbattle, which had gone on for nearly two hours. He did not immediately say which side suffered the losses.

The violence in Odessa, a southwestern port with a broad ethnic mix including Russians, Ukrainians, Georgians and Tatars, is seen in Kiev as a turning point.

Avakov said the new Odessa force was based on "civil activists who wanted to help the Black Sea city in these difficult days". The entire leadership of the local police had been fired and could face criminal action.

The Odessa violence was the deadliest since former Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych fled to Russia in February and pro-Russian militants launched uprisings in the industrial east.

"The police in Odessa acted outrageously, possibly in a criminal fashion," Avakov said on his Facebook page. "The 'honor of the uniform' will offer no cover."

The units Avakov referred to emerged partly from the uprising against Yanukovych early this year.

That could fuel anger among the government's opponents, who accuse it of promoting "fascist" militant groups, such as Right Sector, which took part in the Kiev uprising over the winter.

Earlier on Sunday, outrage over the deaths of pro-Russian activists in riots in Odessa triggered new violence in the Black Sea port, where a mob of protesters stormed police headquarters and freed dozens of their jailed allies.

The activists had been jailed for their involvement in clashes on Friday that killed more than 40 people - some died from gunshot wounds, but most from a fire that broke out in a trade union building. It was the worst violence in the Ukrainian crisis since more than 100 people died in Kiev in February, most of them shot by snipers.

Loss of control of Odessa would be a huge economic and political blow for Kiev, which accuses Moscow of scheming to dismember Ukraine, a country the size of France.

In a separate development, the Russian Foreign Ministry's "White Book" on large-scale human rights violations in Ukraine has been presented to Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to ITAR-Tass.

The White Book, prepared by the ministry, integrates numerous facts of human rights abuses in Ukraine between November and March, the ministry's press service said. "It is based on information by Russian, Ukrainian and Western media outlets, statements by representatives of the present Kiev authorities and their supporters, eyewitness accounts as well as on-the-spot observations and interviews gathered by Russian non-commercial organizations," the Kremlin's website reported.

Reuters-AFP-AP